Evening The Odds
by LittleMewLugia
Summary: With the Decepticos possessing three trines of Seekers to the Autobot's none, is there a non-lethal way to put the Deceoticon air Force out of commission? While looking through old medical information, Ratchet thinks the answer could be yes.
1. Chapter 1

Evening the odds.

Disclaimer: All characters used in this story belong to DreamWorks/Paramount and Hasbro, and I make no claim of ownership, nor do I profit from this.

Continuity: Bayverse/Movieverse but with elements of G1. After the first movie, but 2 and 3 never happening

Main Characters: Ratchet, Starscream, various Seekers.

Rating: Probably G, but T for safety.

Synopsis: While reviewing his medical files, Ratchet has an idea that might even the playing field between the Autobots and the Decepticons. But how do you take out their entire Air Force without a single loss of life?

A/N: Based on an idea of Sanjuno's I have written around before and prompted by one of Sanjuno's reviews to a chapter of "Protectors Of The Young."

This was meant to be a one shot, but ended up writing itself into such a whopper I thought it best to split it. I originally thought it might go well into three, but for dramatic effect and natural conclusions to be taken into effect, it has been split into four parts.

Cybertronian time unit translations: 1 orn=about 2 human weeks. 1 vorn=about 86 human years.

Evening The Odds.

Chapter One.

Starscream led his wing brothers in the aerial dance they performed when out on free flight time. This was not by his connivance: if either Thundercracker or Skywarp wanted to leave and go on solo flight, Starscream would have let them go without comment. However, there were only a certain few places that were safe to fly in without getting shot at, and anyway, they all agreed it was nice to have company while out flying. They too often had to fly singly while on duty to mimic human planes, and enjoyed this opportunity to fly together.

He looked at the Autobot base resentfully as they passed it. Once, they had been able to sometimes sneak in and out and pilfer energon, thanks to the handy ability that had earned Skywarp his name. However, one day the inventor Wheeljack had arrived on Earth. This had not before been seen as a problem: Wheeljack's experimental machinery had a tendency to violently self-immolate, even if that was not its intended function. However it appeared that, as statistics suggested one day must happen, one of Wheeljack's contraptions actually functioned as planned without ending in a loud bang with clouds of smoke. Less than two orns after the Autobot inventor's arrival, Skywarp had attempted to warp past the Autobot Base's usual force-field on an energon-stealing/spy mission, and failed, due to the force-field having mysteriously acquired an anti-warp component running through it.

Starscream angled down towards the Autobot Base and the shimmering field domed over it, its visibility the only advantage the anti-warp field gave them. Before its addition, the force-field had only been visible very close up, so close, in fact, that the few times it had been down, they had only realised too late that they were being ambushed as the Twins leaped up to practice their jet-judo.

_'__At least,__'_ Starscream thought to himself, '_with the anti-warp field added to the force field, __we__ w__ill__ know if i__t'__s down, __and be suspicious enough to avoid it. Not that it's ever happened since the addition of that thrice-slagged sheild!' _For three years now, the Seekers had been unable to access the Autobot Base, and even cracking their codes and deciphering their communications hadn't given any of the Decepticons any idea why they had added the extra layer of security. _'I suppose they got fed up with us stealing their energon,'_ Starscream thought. _'Maybe if they were willing to share, we wouldn't have __had__ to steal it!'_

Executing a somersault over the highest point of the Autobot Base, with a jet-scream sure to draw the attention of anybody inside, Starscream flipped any watchers the bird, following it up with a hand gesture just as obscene in Cybertronian culture. Starscream angled up sharply, casting a quick glance over his shoulder to observe his wing brothers doing the same, in near-perfect synchrony, before angling up behind him.

_'It's about all we can do __when they're in their Base__ now,'_ the Seeker thought bitterly, as he continued his upwards flight, increasing the speed with a quick blast of his foot-thrusters. _'At least we can draw them out for battles, and aren't hampered by their conscience and concern over the squishy natives of this world. And as the Aerialbots have yet to put in an appearance, we have that advantage, too.'_ He vanished into the cloud cover, the best place for he and his wing brothers to fly, in the cloud and hidden from human sight. Yes, the satellites the humans had up might be able to pick up their heat signatures, but most of those were transmitting their data via Soundwave now, and those that weren't would not allow the humans to react fast enough to find them with any craft.

Even if they did, Starscream knew that he and his trine could take out at least a squadron of planes between them, Starscream having personally turned several human F-22 planes to confetti single-handed at Mission City several years ago.

As his wing brothers moved into formation behind him, Starscream cleared all thoughts of the Autobots from his mind. He wasn't going to spoil the enjoyment of free-flight by thinking of them.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Ratchet was jolted rudely out of his perusal of the medical flies he was studying by the loud, building-shaking jet scream that sounded as if it originated just a few millimetres above the roof of the med bay. "What the frag?" he cried, his eyes instinctively looking at the screen visual of the outside of the Base, in time to observe the Seekers, and notice both hand signals they made. He understood them both too, and decided that sometimes being multi-lingual in the cruder terms of over a hundred different sapient species was sometimes a disadvantage. He had to wonder, however, if Starscream knew that the order he used the gestures in was telling him to do something highly illegal in twenty-two of those cultures, and anatomically impossible in all but two of the rest.

He also wondered if he could let such an insult go unanswered, but also realised that by the time he reacted that the Seekers wouldn't be in sight or weapons range, and that all the responses he could think of were unorthodox, not to mention un-Autobot.

Not that the few times he'd needed to worry about _that,_ that he'd ever let it stop him...

He muttered something uncomplimentary, loud enough to make him feel a fraction better, but not loud enough to wake the small slumbering form curled on his lap, and went back to studying the medical files.

Ratchet possessed most of the sum of Cybertronian medical knowledge, much of it forgotten or obsolete, and had, in fact, downloaded it from the main data storage in Iacon just before the city had fallen. Not having the time to sift through it for what was relevant, he had instead chosen to download it all, a monumental task that had slowed the Autobot group he led considerably, and had almost destroyed Ratchet in the process. He had planned to go through it and cull anything irrelevant at intervals of two vorns, but at that time he'd not realised how long this wretched war was going to last. However, now they had a Base, Ratchet had begun taking what opportunities he got to go through and index what he had.

He had recently come to the conclusion that what might seem irrelevant might actually serve a purpose under different circumstances, so had decided to preserve all the data he had, copy it all onto several back-up drives, and delete from his processors anything that seemed irrelevant in the current situation. He had also chosen to arrange it and index it, so that if circumstances changed and he needed to re-download anything he had deleted from his processors, he could find it easily.

And if something went wrong, and Ratchet himself was killed, the knowledge he had wouldn't die with him. This was why Ratchet had first copied everything he had onto storage as it was, in case he was killed before he finished indexing.

He sighed, and settled back to his task.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

"Elita, Firestar, do either of you need to be relieved?" Optimus asked as he walked into one of the three rooms that had been converted into nurseries.

"No, we're good, and we have volunteers," Elita replied, using her free hand to indicate Cliffjumper and Mirage, who were moving from one sparkling to another to first feed them formula, and then to release gas from their systems, using the little valve built into each sparkling body for that very reason.

Optimus nodded, absently stroking the sparkling Elita was holding in her other arm. It was good for them, he supposed, that the femmes who had landed had, upon learning that the AllSpark had been destroyed, happily taken the work of producing sparklings onto themselves with a vigour and willingness that surprised most of the mechs. Ratchet had, in fact, had to impose limits on how many they could each safely bear a year.

Optmus moved over to pick up his and Elita's latest. The femmes who had arrived – Elita, Firestar, Chromia, Flareup, Arcee, and Moonracer – had, if they had partners, had a sparkling with those partners first. Then they had chosen to divide up the remaining mechs who wanted sparklings between them and bear a sparkling for each mech who wanted one. Then they would go back to their partners if they wanted another, and have another.

"We are adding to our numbers," Optimus said as he ran his engine to calm his mech, Alpha, into recharge. _'So are the Decepticons, through landings, and all are fighting adults,'_ he thought but did not say. Perhaps the Autobots had had fewer landings than the Decepticon, but he knew the Autobots had been lucky with their arrivals, and now had some of the faction's best fighters and scientists on Earth. Unfortunately, with the arrival of first Starscream's wing brothers, and then just four orns ago, the Coneheads AND the Rainmaker trines, the Autobots, currently with no air support at all, were at a serious disadvantage. They had received communications from Silverbolt that he and all of the other Aerialbots were alive and on their way, but still had months at least to wait before they could make Earthfall.

Technically, Optimus could order all the sparklings put into adult bodies, and have battle techniques and fighting styles downloaded into them, but not only could Ratchet not make enough adult bodies in time, but Optimus found the idea of using their offspring in this way quite repugnant, and suspected many of the other Creators, both mech and femme, would feel the same.

"Once we finish bearing, we can go back to fighting," Elita said. She and all the other femmes had been incredibly annoyed when Ratchet put a ban on any femme who was carrying from fighting if the Autobots had to battle. As it happened, on each of the four occasions the Autobots had been forced to go out and fight the Decepticon forces, all the femmes had been in one or another stage of carrying. "We will have the advantage of surprise, as they will not be expecting us," Elita clarified.

"Indeed," Optimus said, and he had to admit that the femmes and their individual, unique fighting strengths and styles would be a help. He did not think any of the femmes had been spotted as such when they landed and came to the Base, and had taken pains to ensure the information stayed a secret. "However, as they now have an Air Force nine Seekers strong, we will have to create an anti-aircraft unit. One with what humans would call "strong stomachs'." He winced. Ratchet had told him about the grounding-madness that took over Seekers who were prevented from flying. "Any in that group will have to go after any Seeker they shoot down and make sure he does not live long after being downed." His voice was strained. As Firestar and Mirage both shot him shocked looks, he said "Ratchet tells me it is preferable to the insanity they will suffer if unable to fly."

"Couldn't we keep them captive?" Mirage asked.

"They will still need to fly. We would either have to repair and then release them – assuming Ratchet could replace severely damaged wings - and risk them turning on us as we release them – or find some way to allow them to fly in captivity, and we do not have the space. The force-field is at full extension now, we could not increase the height to allow flight. Wheeljack and Blaster are working on extending it, but with the limits we have with the technology available to us, even taking into consideration we do have a craft mech and an inventor to make some parts the humans cannot provide, there is little chance of any significant improvement in the near future."

"Surely there is some other way?" asked Firestar.

"I can only hope that someone can find a non-lethal method of taking the Decepticon Air Force out of commission," Optimus said. "Any ideas would be very welcome."

Putting Alpha - who was now deep in recharge – back into Elita's free arm, Optimus walked out of the room as if he carried all of Cybertron on his shoulders.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Ratchet had paused in his indexing to read some information on Seeker programming. Optimus had confided his plans to Ratchet an orn ago, and asked if he could find a non-lethal way of tackling the issue of Decepticon air superiority. Ratchet had told Optimus to hope the Aerialbots landed soon, before the extreme measures became a neccessity to make things more even, but as he read on, he noticed something that might possibly be what Optimus was looking for.

Fifteen minutes later, Ratchet sat up, shifting his still-recumbent sparkling to his shoulder. He saved what he had catalogued and commed for the Twins. If what he had read was true, if that bit of programming was undeletable, unalterable, and overrode everything else, then if his plan worked, there would be no need for that anti-aircraft unit. He allowed himself a small smile. "It could be child's play," he murmured to himself, as Sunstreaker and Sideswipe peeked in the med bay warily. He spotted them and crooked his finger at them.

They spotted Ratchet's small smile, and looked at each other nervously, When Ratchet was scowling or throwing wrenches, they knew what to expect, but a smiling Ratchet was completely beyond their ken. Wondering what they'd done wrong, or perhaps if they had something terminal, they walked over nervously.

Ratchet put a hand on a shoulder each and said "You two, I have a task for you both." He paused as they both wondered what awful task he'd ask of them.

"How would you like to practice your jet-judo?"

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Starscream was on patrol when Soundwave forwarded him a message he'd intercepted and decrypted. It was from Optimus to Bumblebee, asking him to come to the Autobot Base in an hour to help unload some air fuel.

Starscream knew that when the Autobots got fuel deliveries, they dropped the force-field to let the tankers of fuel in. Starscream had never bothered about it much, as two or three of the grounders had readily available sources of fuel they could visit and usually shared what they had. Air fuel was a different matter, however. It was getting more and more difficult to land and fuel at Nellis, and he was worried his tail fin numbers would be remembered and that one day he'd be recognised, and worse, shot at with sabot rounds. Starscream had to assume that this air fuel delivery was an indication that the Aerialbots were on their way, which could louse up their big advantage against the Autobots. But this could be an opportunity, he saw, and called his wing brothers.

Relaying the message, he said "Skywarp, you hide in the clouds. Thundercracker, you and I will distract them. When distracted, Skywarp, drop down and warp the tanker to our Base."

"What if it's a trap?" Skywarp asked.

"It's in the same code the Autobots have been using for the last month, the one Soundwave cracked an orn ago. If it was a trap, they'd have to know we cracked their code, and if that was the case, Soundwave would have picked up other communications in a code he hadn't decrypted yet. I asked, worried about the same thing, and he said no, they're sending out the same old orders and comments as usual on the same code. They have no idea we've cracked it and no reason to think we have. It'll be fine, and we can't pass up this opportunity for air fuel."

Skywarp was forced to concur, for he knew the air fuel situation could change at any moment, and took his position above the clouds, as Starscream and Thundercracker flew around, planning to "buzz" the Base and the Autobots when the tanker was waiting to go in.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Everything appeared to go to plan, at first, Starscream reflected bitterly. The tanker driver got out of the cab of the tanker and walked to the gate. After a word with the soldier the force field dropped. Starscream and Thundercracker streaked down, and the soldier and cab driver dived into the Base, as Skywarp dropped down and got ready to grab the tanker and warp it away.

Before he could get a secure hold, however, the Twins suddenly leaped out from their hiding places, grabbing Skywarp and spinning him down and into the Base. Starscream still wasn't over-concerned, expecting Skywarp to warp out of there, the Twins could never hold onto him for long.

But someone must have been watching and waiting, because the anti-warp force field flickered up suddenly, and Starscream realised that Skywarp was trapped inside, and they were stuck outside. It seemed that the Autobots _did_ realise the Decepticons had cracked their code, just not changed it as they'd had nothing so important to say that it needed any new encrypting.

With a howl of rage, despair, or both, Starscream and Thundercracker took flight, heading back to their base, calling for Soundwave and begging him for his help.


	2. Chapter 2

Evening The Odds.

Chapter Two.

A/N: 1 breem=about 10 human minutes.

"Here, I'll knock him out briefly," Ratchet said, rushing over from his own hiding place with a medical tool that he quickly applied to the stunned Seeker before he could try warping all around the Base to try and lose the Twins. Skywarp let out one small cry before collapsing, and Ratchet picked the limp Seeker up and, with a little assistance from Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, pulled Skywarp over and on to his shoulders with a grunt.

"I forgot how heavy these mechs can get, despite their grace in the air," Ratchet said. "Have you got those regular flight paths we plotted from observations of the other two trines? Remember, one from one trine and one from the other if you can. If this works, we can use them as bait to draw their wing brothers in, and that'll make things easier for them and us."

"We wouldn't mind if we had to jet-judo the lot," Sunstreaker said with a grin.

"Well, off you go while I deal with Skywarp," Ratchet said, in an uncommon good mood. The Twins looked at each other, and gave wolfish grins before transforming into their alts, as Ratchet carried Skywarp into the Base.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

"Are you sure about this?" Elita asked, as Ratchet met her at the door to the nursery.

"As sure as I can be about Seekers in general, but I must admit, the records are old. I can't be entirely certain, so let's be ready to grab him if he tries anything," Ratchet said.

"I'll _kill_ him if he tries anything!" she threatened, drawing her pistol.

"Put that away, if this programming does work, he'll attack _you_ as a threat, and his programming may make him move quicker than you expect! We do not need to be down on our numbers." Ratchet glared at her until she holstered the pistol and nodded. Only then did Ratchet step into the nursery with the Seeker, Elita right behind him, and use the medical tool to wake Skywarp up. They both supported him as he began reviving, Ratchet's hand on his helm making sure that the first thing he would see upon opening his optics was a small sparkling nearby.

The effect on the Seeker was instant. He straightened in Elita's and Ratchet's grips, and they both got ready to pull him back if he lunged for the sparkling. However, he didn't. He began cooing at the sparkling, the cooing becoming louder and more intense as Skywarp scanned the room with his optics and noticed that the room contained about nine sparklings. He held his arms out and moved towards one, felt himself kept back by their grip on his arms.

He looked up as if noticing them for the first time, his gaze showing a mixture of confusion and annoyance.

"Let me hold them, let me look after them," he said pleadingly. Ratchet let go and pried Elita's hands away too. The Seeker swooped down on the little sparkling and Elita tensed, Ratchet holding her back. Skywarp lifted the little sparkling up, babbled nonsense at it, and when it laughed, laughed with it. He settled it in the crook of his arm, moved to pick up another, and as he turned to them, Elita was stunned at the look of utter joy on Skywarp's face.

"I should speak to my wing brothers soon. They should be here with me. They would be jealous if they knew what I was doing."

"We haven't disconnected your comms, why don't you call them now? I'll clear them to come in," Ratchet invited.

"In a breem or two," Skywarp said distractedly as he scooped an older sparkling up and swung it to his back. It clung to his wings, burbling happily, and Ratchet backed out, pulling a stunned Elita with him. Once they were out of the nursery, she said to Ratchet "What's happened? It's like he's a totally different mech!"

"I discovered in some old files that Seekers were built with strong sparkling love and protection programming," Ratchet said. "It explains why at one time on Cybertron, Seeker-guardians were popular. I had one myself as a child, though I don't think even my parents were aware of _why_ Seeker-guardians were so popular, by then it was just the done thing, the knowledge about the programming known to just a few. It seems even bodies created by the AllSpark had this programming, and in bodies created for the AllSpark to enSpark, either basic Seeker programming was downloaded to the body, this programming being an integral part, or in bodies that had no programming, the AllSpark programmed the body, including the sparkling love-protection programming. And I wasn't being pedantic about your weapon, you _would_ have been perceived as a threat, and he would have been trying to kill you. And right now, the sparklings in the room are the safest beings on this planet, because if something were to happen to threaten them, Skywarp would do everything in his power to protect them."

As Elita stared at him and comprehension blossomed in her optics, Ratchet got a communication from Ironhide on the gate.

"I got Starscream and Thundercracker out here claiming that Ratchet told Skywarp he could invite them in and you'd clear it, Ratch," the Weapons Specialist said. "They asked me to ask you, so I'm askin'" It was clear from Ironhide's tone of voice that he didn't believe Starscream or Thundercracker.

"Let them in and tell them to wait in the courtyard," Ratchet said. As Ironhide began to sputter in disbelief he said "I'm expecting them, and so is Elita." She nodded and fell into step beside Ratchet as he started for the Base entrance. "Tell them we'll be right there."

As Ratchet came out, he saw Starscream and his wing brother had been let in by Ironhide, who gave Ratchet the stink-eye before turning pointedly back to his watch post.

"I see what's been keeping you Autobots busy, I take it you're not the only femme who's landed," Starscream said to Elita, with a flirtatious and suggestive shutter-wink, and Elita muttered a curse under her breath. _'So much for us being a surprise now!' _she thought. Then Starscream turned to Ratchet and said "Where's our wing brother? Let us have him back and let him go!"

"Of course, come with us, you can pick him up and then leave if you want, Ratchet said amiably. The Seekers stalked down the corridors impatiently after Ratchet and Elita. The two Autobots opened the door to the nursery, went in, and stepped aside to let Starscream in, who stopped dead in his tracks.

"Hey, let me in, Starscream, you're blocking the doorway," grumbled Thundercracker. As Elita and Ratchet, grinning, moved up, Starscream moved to the side and then bent to scoop up two wriggling sparklings. Thundercracker got in, went through the same freeze-and-stare routine as Starscream, then swooped to pick up as many unclaimed sparklings as he could fit in his arms, which was all of them.

"Hey, no fair, you've got four, Warp's got three, I've only got two," Starscream said sulkily. He reached out and plucked a sparkling gently from Thundercracker and placed it with the other two before blowing raspberries on their plating, which made them giggle.

"Still want to leave?" Ratchet asked.

"No!" Starscream said. "Please can we stay? The sparklings need us." Although it was couched as a request, Ratchet didn't think they'd leave even if he told them to leave. Not that he had any intention of doing so.

"Of course!" Ratchet said, and he and Elita left the room, as the three Seekers appeared to have everything in hand.

"Won't they want to go back when the euphoria's worn off?" Elita asked.

"Possible, but unlikely," Ratchet said. "Not while they feel the sparklings need looking after and protecting."

"Protecting against what? Not us, because from what you said earlier, if we were perceived as a threat, they'd've tried to kill us."

"No, not us," Ratchet said. "They're not any less intelligent remember, just their priorities have changed," he explained, "and they are aware that there is still a war on."

"There is that," she mused. "We femmes considered that, but decided that meant there was thus more cause to, as some humans might put it, to 'go forth and multiply'."

She brightened up and turned to Ratchet. "We have three nurseries, and there's three trines. Do you think we could find some way to get the rest of the Seekers in for babysitting duty?" she asked.

"That's a great idea, which I also had, but a bit earlier. I've set some things in motion and we need to wait for results," Ratchet said. "I don't think the Seekers will fight for us, but they shouldn't want to battle for anybody else," Ratchet said "including the Decepticons, which will make any coming battle fairer." He smiled as Optimus joined them, his oldest, Terra Prima, in one arm. "And not just a non-lethal way of dealing with the Seekers, but what must be the best possible one for all of us, including them."

"And now, I suppose it's up to the Twins," Optimus said.

"Yes, Primus help us," Ratchet said, "it is."

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

It was about an hour later that the Twins requested someone to help bring in Dirge, one of the Coneheads.

"_We can't keep him from waking __and struggling or escaping__, not without risking permanent damage, and we're assuming you want him functional? To make matters worse, his wing brothers have us pinned down," _Sideswipe commed.

"_Give me a breem, and I'll be on my way,"_ Ratchet said, wondering if he could figuratively catch three birds – or Seekers in this case – with one stone. He stopped off briefly at one of the other two nursery rooms for five minutes, and then headed off to the co-ordinates given by the Twins.

As he got closer, the two agitated airborne Seekers – thankfully both in alt, and in a little-frequented area of town – gave Ratchet a visual idea of where to find the two mechs and their captive. Unfortunately, when they saw Ratchet, the two fliers began trying to attack him too. He dodged, managing to slide to a halt under a low overpass, where the Twins were keeping a shouting and struggling Dirge pinned down. Ratchet transformed with difficulty in the tight space, and winced as the Conehead also caught sight of him and greeted him with a particularly colourful epithet.

"What a nasty mouth!" Ratchet said cheerfully. "I do hope you won't use that language around these guys, if, of course, you choose to help us look after them." Ratchet started up the five minute holorecording he'd made in one of the two nurseries still lacking Seeker attendants.

"The day I help look after Autobots is -" Dirge began, then broke off as his processors caught up with the footage the optics were feeding them of sparklings, some mobile and crawling about the nursery, some lying quiescent and sleepy.

"They have no attendants?" Dirge asked, looking sharply at Ratchet.

"They have Autobot attendants, but they have other duties too, so cannot be there as often as we'd like. We have monitors linked to the main control room, so that if they need something, we can direct whoever is closest to attend them-" Dirge spoke up, again cutting Ratchet off in mid-sentence.

"We'll need access to fuel and time to fly, and some sort of contracts, and to negotiate our rights, but if you can guarantee that, I'll come, and I think my wing brothers would if given the same guarantee. Oh, and while we're at it, I'd better get them to call off their attack." Which he did instantly, judging by the sudden silence and absence of the occasional shot the pair had still been firing, despite their quarry being under cover. Ratchet shut off the recording as it had done its job

"Let me come out so they can see I'm okay, then perhaps we can go and see who we'll be protecting in person," Dirge said. Nodding, Ratchet watched Dirge walk out, and his wing brothers drop down, transforming as they did so with graceful somersaults. They appeared to check Dirge over, and threw murderous glances at the Twins and Ratchet. As they each took a menacing step towards the three Autobots, they all tensed. Dirge gently put a hand on Thrust's and Ramjet's wings, and Ratchet saw optics flash as Dirge commed them, but just to be sure, Ratchet replayed the five minute recording so the others could see it.

"So, fuel, flight-time off and a contract of rights, confirmed after negotiations. Plus sparklings to look after," Ramjet said. "I'm not exactly unhappy with the Decepticons, but as a youngling I dreamed of being a Seeker-Guardian. The necessity of the war put paid to that. But that's another thing. Will we be considered as equals? I don't want to go back to the sort of two-tier society the Decepticons formed to fight against."

"Optimus is totally different to Sentinel and the Senators on Cybertron," Ratchet said. "Optimus wants equality for all as well. Or did you really miss that in his beliefs?" Ratchet dug out a recording, found the required part, and played it back.

"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings," Optimus' sonorous baritone sounded, and Ratchet turned it off. "_All_ sentient beings," he repeated. "He includes humans amongst that number, and if he includes humans, I'm telling you now, he includes Decepticons in that number too. He knows I'm here, he knows I've made you this offer, and he approved it."

"Okay, I'm willing to give it a go too," Ramjet said, and Thrust said "Me, too."

"So, shall we head back?" Dirge asked. "Ramjet, I think you're better for Ratchet, you and I can take one of the other two each." The Autobots blinked in confusion, and put their weapons up defensively, instinctively making a triangle, back to back. Dirge sighed.

"I can see all of us are going to have to learn to _trust_ again," he said. "Take you as in carry you up with us as we fly and take you to your Base, not 'take' as in attack and kill. We'd rather not arrive alone and have to wait for you to catch up, especially if your gate-guard is as nervous as you, and if we fly you there we'll get you there faster."

_'Oops!'_ Ratchet thought. Dirge was right: trust issues would have to be high on the agenda. They were all so used to the terms of battle that sometimes there would be misunderstandings. He and the Twins put away their weapons and moved apart. The Seekers approached their assigned Autobot, magnetising their hull plating to ensure against what the humans might call 'butter fingers'. Wrapping their arms around the Autobots' chests as an extra precaution more psychological than physical, they took off, slightly more ponderously than usual due to the extra weight. However, Ratchet had to admit, they _did_ get them to the Autobot Base quicker than if they'd driven back.

Ironhide eyed them curiously as the burdened Seekers landed, just beyond the gate, and then turned of the magnetism, allowing each Autobot to drop down onto solid earth. He had assumed Ratchet and the other two would be returning with one Seeker, trussed and bound, but here were all three, not only coming under their own steam, but carrying the Autobots who had gone out, apparently willingly. Ratchet saw him and waved.

"Dirge, Ramjet, and Thrust decided to accept our offer of employment. It seems that with these three maybe we should have offered first. It might have saved us all a lot of bother." Ratchet turned to the three. "I'm sorry we decided to attack one of you rather than ask." The three Seekers accepted his apology with calm nods of the head and a quiet dignity, which was then slightly ruined by Ramjet excitedly asking "So where are these sparklings? I want to see them!"

"Ironhide, drop the field, we're coming in," Ratchet said.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Ratchet left the three happy Seekers with their little charges, after a quick chat with them about the Rainmakers, leaving canisters of fuel with them, and dropping another three identical canisters off in the Command Trine's room after a similar chat with them. He ran up a quick contract listing the Seeker's duties and rights, which they could all look over and modify if needed a little later, and went up to the control room to chat to Optimus.

"Dirge and Starscream both confirm that Soundwave insists on at least one trine being in-base at all times," Ratchet said. "I don't want to wait until Soundwave is willing to lead an attack to try and 'rescue' the Command and Conehead Trines, as he may try to. I want to try and get them before then."

"We could send in Mirage," Optimus said. "Or see if Skywarp would Seeker-nap one of them, draw the other two in as we did with Skywarp and his wing brothers."

"I have another thing to try first that might work just as well," Ratchet said.

"I'd prefer not to make same error I made with the coneheads, and use force. We'll try those ideas if my idea fails, but not before. I will require Blaster's skills for this idea, and I'm hoping it will work with the minimum of effort and risk for us all."

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

It took about half an hour to organise. Mirage was on scanners pointing at the sky, ready to look for Seekers. Elita was down in the third nursery with a recording device. Blaster was sat in the main communications seat, and had been quietly and carefully hacking his way into the Decepticon communication channels.

"I don't know how long I'll be able to keep the link, the moment Soundwave realised we're patched in to every screen and speaker in the Decepticon Base, he'll be trying to cut me out. I'll keep it going as long as I can, but I can't give an exact amount of time.

"Okay," Optimus said. Then he spoke to Elita via com. "Elita, start filming." Then to Blaster. "Pick up Elita's footage, and my voice, and start transmitting them real-time to the Decepticon Base."

Blaster nodded, and did so.


End file.
